100 THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 



diet. Government examination of 238 stomachs, taken 

 at all times of the year, showed that insects formed sev- 

 enty-three per cent, of the food and vegetable matter 

 twenty-seven per cent. About one-half of the vegetable 

 matter was composed of corn, wheat and oats, the other 

 half being seeds of wild plants, etc. The proportion of 

 grain as established by government examination was: 

 corn, 11.1; wheat, 1.8; oats, 1.4. 



JHerganser, American, Sheldrake, Goosander, 

 or Fish Duck. Length, twenty-six inches; extent, three 

 feet, three inches; bill, one and a half inches, red and 

 black; entire head, glossy greenish black; neck all around, 

 white; center of back, black, extending down each side 

 of the rump, which with the tail is gray, somewhat mot- 

 tled with white on the sides; wings, white, long feathers 

 black, some of the others narrowly edged with black, a 

 black bar across the middle of the wing; under surface, 

 pure white. The female differs in having the head crest- 

 ed and bright rusty in color, while the whole upper sur- 

 face is gray; a white patch on middle of each wing. 



The nest is made of leaves and grasses and lined with 

 down; the eggs are from six to ten in number, of a light 

 yellow, and two and two-fifths by one and three-fourths 

 inches in size. 



The birds breed on the northern border of the United 

 States and northward and spend the winter in the south. 

 In New Jersey they are transient, occurring about the 

 middle of October along the coast and on the larger rivers; 

 some winter here. 



The food of these birds consists of fish and frogs and 

 their flesh is unpalatable. 



Merganser , Hooded. Length, eighteen inches; ex- 

 tent, two feet; bill, one and a half inches, blackish red; 

 head with large crest reaching from the forehead to back 

 of the neck, black, with a wedged-shaped patch of white in 



